Five years later, Derek Cosper and Keonde Henry still remember the conversation.

Cosper had been Henry's P.E. teacher in sixth grade and was now his football coach, but Henry was going to miss the next four games because he was academically ineligible. And he wasn't just down because of his situation — he was down on football. He'd been a basketball player his whole life, and he wanted to give up football and focus on that.

Henry started crying — "Just bawled his eyes out," Cosper said. They had a kind of heart-to-heart, where Cosper laid out what Henry needed to do if he wanted to rejoin the football team. Show up to practice every day. Go to tutoring every day. Show up at every game he missed and cheer on his teammates. And start by apologizing to them.

As for the second part, Cosper leveled with him. How many spots are there for college basketball players? And how many spots for football players? It's a numbers game, he said, and besides — he'd seen what the kid could do on a football field.

"I promise you that if you stick with everything, you're going to have a chance," Cosper told him. "You're going to have a chance to get your college paid for one day, You're going to have a chance to continue your playing career beyond high school. But a lot's got to happen between now and then."

A lot did happen, and he was right — in December, Henry chose Memphis over a litany of Power Five offers, coming to the Tigers as the eighth-highest recruit in program history and the highest-ranked wide receiver ever to pick the Tigers.

Football or basketball?

It's a pretty impressive rise for someone who had to be sold on playing football.

"I remember I cried, because I was like, 'I don't want to play this sport. This sport is dumb.' And I started training with one of my best friends, Jalen Brooks, and we started throwing and catching and all that other stuff. And I just, I don't know. I kind of fell in love with it."

He eventually gave up basketball as a sophomore, the same year he made varsity at Lake Dallas High School in Lake Dallas, Texas. Henry played both cornerback and receiver throughout his high school career. He always liked playing defense, partly because it covered up one of his issues as a receiver.

"If the ball got into my hands, like if I actually caught the ball, I mean, I can make a few people miss and my speed was just great," he said. "So I didn't have to worry about people catching me. But the problem was ... I just had a problem with catching the ball."

He worked on that, and he had only three drops in 2023. He had 56 catches for 970 yards and 12 touchdowns during his senior season.

His quick development and physical skills (6-foot-3, 190 pounds) made him a hot commodity in the recruiting market. He had what he calls a "not enjoyable" recruitment process, twice committing and decommitting before ending up at Memphis.

He committed to Boston College in June, then decomitted and committed to Purdue later that month. He continued to stay in contact with Memphis offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey and wide receivers coach Larry Smith throughout that process, then decommitted from Purdue in early December.

Though offers continued to come in from Power Five conference teams, he committed to Memphis on early signing day and made it official a few minutes later during a ceremony at his high school. Cosper, now a coach at Flower Mound High School, was there to celebrate with him.

"The kid's hard-working," said Jason Young, his high school coach. "Great attitude. He's got the deep ball threat on any play. He can roll. He's an exciting player."

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'He hasn't even scratched the surface'

Henry knows he comes to the Bluff City with high expectations. He is the only four-star recruit in the Tigers' 2024 class.

"I don't really care about all that ranking (expletive)," Henry said. "Me being a four-star doesn't really mean (expletive) going into that program. It's about my work ethic and all that. And I'm ready to give the next three to four years, however long I'm there, to give the best that I can."

One of the reasons he chose Memphis was the chance to play with veteran receivers like Roc Taylor and Koby Drake, who have been in the program for their entire college careers. The conversations he had with them and other Tigers players during his visit led him to believe he wanted to be back for good.

Oh, and one other thing.

"I'm just really excited to play with Seth Henigan," he said.

Henigan, Memphis' all-time leading passer, is returning for his senior season, and Henry will join a receivers room that has three of its top four leading pass-catchers from last season back in Taylor, Drake and Demeer Blankumsee.

Henry has the pedigree, but part of what made him so appealing to all those programs is the potential for growth. That might be the most exciting thing for the Memphis coaching staff when Henry comes to campus this summer.

"He's a very, very talented football player," Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield said. "But he hasn't even scratched the surface. The whole city, everybody's going to absolutely love him."

Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @thejonahdylan.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: How Memphis football landed four-star wide receiver Keonde Henry